


If I Was You(rs)

by skyscapes (orphan_account)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Swap, Day 2 - Soulmates | Swap, Gap Filler, Kageyama Tobio is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Mutual Pining, Spiker Setter Week 2020, dual perspective
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26326141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/skyscapes
Summary: Forget him. Just forget him. Forget him. Forget his skin and his hands and the heart he bared in a note above his bed. Forget it all because he isn't real. Because he may be waiting too, but not for you.The thing about soulmates is that they really get under you skin. Sometimes literally.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34
Collections: Haikyuu: Spiker-Setter Week





	If I Was You(rs)

**Author's Note:**

> **Day 2 Prompt: Soulmate | Swap**
> 
> Here's my contribution to day 2 of spiker-setter week! skipping out on day 1 because i didn't have time to finish lol. Subscribe to this series to see what else I have for this week! (spoiler: mostly kagehina) 
> 
> This was totally supposed to be an angsty oneshot but... I got carried away and planned for multiple chapters, as you do. I'll be updating this fic as soon as I can so subscribe if you wanna see how this plays out :3
> 
> Enjoy!

The first thing Tobio notices is how much closer the floor is. 

The awareness comes soon after, the unfamiliar tightness in the skin that he can’t really describe as ‘his’ anymore. He looks down at his hands, fingers shorter and thicker than his own, the tips blush faintly and feel sore. Definitely not his hands. 

Even Kageyama can put a word to this - a swap. 

A soulmate. 

_ “Someone even better will come find you.” _

_ “You mean, like a soulmate?” _

_ “Like that.”  _

The memory of the conversation flies into his mind unbidden and unwanted. That had been happening a lot over the past few days. Ever since his parents had both been in the house at the same time for the first time in almost a month. Ever since the day they had found out and Miwa had held him when he felt like he was choking on his own breath. 

Ever since the funeral. 

It had been a month already, but felt like less. 

His grandfather’s words bring a cold, bitter taste to the back of his throat. Someday you’ll find someone better, Kazuyo had said. 

But Kazuyo is gone. And Tobio is alone in a stranger’s room, in a body that was too small for him, with hands he didn’t recognize, and hurt in the back of his throat. 

His eyes scan the room, more to simply have something to do than out of any genuine curiosity. They stop when they find a small piece of paper taped above the other boy’s bed. Tobio reaches out and gently pulls it off the wall. The handwriting is almost comically large, as though the writer had put all of his concentration into making sure every stroke of kanji was just right. 

_ To my Soulmate,  _ it read,  _ my name is Hinata Shouyou and I like caramel ice cream and playing volleyball!!!!! I can’t wait to meet you!!! Write your name here!!  _ A lopsided smiley face followed the text, and the lower half of the page was left blank. 

Tobio squints as he stares down at the letter, seemingly addressed to him. It takes him a couple of tries to read through the full thing, the other boy’s excessive exclamation marks don’t make the task any easier for him. Once he’s done, he traces his not-really-his fingers across the blank lines at the bottom of the page. 

_ I should just write it. Clearly, he wants me to.  _

Tobio knew he didn’t get on well with most kids his age. What difference did the word ‘soulmate’ make? Sooner or later, even his soulmate’s eyes would feel distant, drawn away from him.  _ You’re still practicing, seriously?  _ He would say, irritation bleeding into his voice. 

He didn’t think he could stand losing someone else. 

Tobio clenches his hands, crumpling the edges of a paper that was so full of hope.  _ It doesn’t matter,  _ he thinks,  _ it doesn’t matter.  _

When Tobio blinks, he finds himself back in his own room staring at his reflection in the mirror. 

_ So you know then _ . He wonders if the other boy - Hinata Shouyou - would ever try to find him, especially considering he now knows what his soulmate looks like. 

Forget him. Just forget him. Forget him. Forget his skin and his hands and the heart he bared in a note above his bed. Forget it all because he isn't real. Because he may be waiting too, but not for you.

* * *

It happens in between one blink and the next. As Shouyou closes his eyes for a fraction of a second, his feet are still firmly planted on his bedroom floor. When he opens them, he only has an instant to take in the ball above him before it lands directly on top of his face. 

Shouyou groans and presses a hand to his smarting nose, leaving the ball to roll off the bed.  _ What the heck was that?  _ He drops an arm over the side of the bed, and begins to lean over to retrieve the ball before realizing he doesn’t have to. His arms are long enough to touch the ball  _ without  _ him having to stretch! 

Shouyou gasps loudly and shoots to his feet, arms held out in front of him in all their beautifully long glory. His eyes drop to the floor and his heart pounds with excitement as he realizes just how  _ tall  _ he is. When had this happened? And how? Had he finally had his growth spurt? He thought he was supposed to notice when that kind of thing was happening! Not that it really mattered, of course. Shouyou could care less for the technicalities - he was tall! Wonderfully, blissfully, tall.  _ Definitely  _ past 170, maybe even close to 180? 

“Amazing…” Shouyou whispers, feeling a broad grin spread across his face. “THIS IS AMAZING!” he cries out, jumping up in excitement. 

Shouyou’s head hits the low ceiling and he crashes onto the floor in an ungraceful heap.

“Nii-chan? Are you alright?” a girl’s confused voice calls out. 

“I’m fine!” Shouyou replies. Then he frowns. The voice had sounded too old to be Natsu, and Natsu was usually used to him causing a racket. She’d usually angrily yell at him to shut up rather than ask about his well being. 

It is then that Shouyou realized that he was not in his room. Or in his clothes. His eyes widen and his heart picks up for a very different reason. 

He’d swapped. 

Most kids in his class were just starting to swap with their soulmates. For a few minutes, sometimes even mere seconds, they would be in their soulmate’s body, living their life for a brief moment before swapping back to their own reality. Shouyou had seen people boasting about it to the entire class during lunch, while some only whispered it to their friends with shining eyes. Shouyou had already heard many stories of people’s swaps, and had laughed and cheered his friends on, ignoring the tiny nagging impatience and envy that asked  _ what about me?  _

Shouyou was used to fate not working out in his favour, he was starting to wonder if his soulmate (or potentially, lack thereof) was not an exception to that. 

But perhaps he’d been wrong about that. He did have a soulmate! He glances down to the volleyball at his feet, and smiles. Of course his soulmate played volleyball. It was almost too good to be true, then again, Shouyou figures that that’s what soulmates are all about. 

If his sister’s room is anything to go by, the room he is in probably belonged to another boy. It is sparse, bare necessities only - bed, closet, desk, volleyball, and a couple of weights at the foot of the bed. Will his soulmate think Shouyou’s room was messy? He hadn’t cleaned it out before he left and his mother was always reminding him about it…

Shouyou shook his head quickly. His soulmate would be nice! He certainly wouldn’t care about little things like whether his bed was made or how long the laundry had been piled in the far corner of his room.

Since Shouyou had heard many stories about swapping, he knows what he has to do next. Swaps don’t usually last long, a few minutes at most. Shouyou had already wasted some precious time figuring out what was going on so he had to act fast - you never knew when you would swap next, so it was important to learn as much as possible about your soulmate when you did. 

Shouyou pads over to the desk and finds a couple of books stacked on one side. None of them have any labels, so they don’t tell him who their owner is. His heart sinks as he scans the barren surface, did his soulmate really have to be  _ so  _ neat? Then his eyes land on what could be his sole lifeline: a photograph! 

A small picture frame sits on the desk, Shouyou picks it up and brings it close to his face. The picture is old, the colors muted. In the center is an old man with gray hair and smile lines drawn across his face. On either side are two young children, both with dark hair. The girl looks about twelve, while her brother (his soulmate!) looks much younger than she is. He’s tiny in the photograph, and Shouyou has to squint at him. His face is round and chubby, but turned slightly away from the camera as he is looking up at the older man. 

It’s not much, but Shouyou will take it. 

The photograph gives him an idea though, and he swears softly under his breath. Why didn’t he think of that sooner?? He can only hope his soulmate is smarter than he is and has figured out a way to stay in touch. Shouyou replaces the frame where he finds it and begins to look around the room for a mirror. Even if he doesn’t know his name, Shouyou can still find out what he looks like. 

There! The dresser is only a few feet away from him. He bounds over to it, and just catches sight of a flash of black when he finds himself back in his bed with a familiar piece of paper in his hands. 

The final ray of hope that blossoms in his chest dulls quickly. 

Because the paper, his note, is blank. More than that, the sides are crushed. Like the person holding it couldn’t have cared less for its condition. 

Oh. 

He’d heard those stories too of course. People who were met with rejection when they finally met their soulmates. 

Hinata hadn’t been able to find his soulmate, and knew next to nothing about him.

And his soulmate… didn’t want to be found. 

Well. That was that then. 

Hinata folds the note up, creasing it tightly and places it on the corner of his desk to deal with later. 

Screw soulmates. Destiny had always had it in for Hinata Shouyou hadn’t it?

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I promised a happy ending in the tags and I will deliver asap - stay tuned ;) 
> 
> In other exciting news, I'm gonna be writing for my first zine!!! Check out the [ HQ: Our Story Zine ](https://www.instagram.com/hqstoryzine/) over here! Please look forward to it!
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, kudos and comments make my day. Catch me on tumblr [ @alexfinallywrites ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/alexfinallywrites) for more fandom-related nonsense :)


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